The voice of the protagonists of social impact!

Piemonte Innova, thanks to the I3S Project, supports the national research by Italia non profit and The Good Social to highlight the opportunities and problems of the Third Sector.

The national survey aims to give voice to the new generations of volunteers, collaborators, employees and entrepreneurs of the Third Sector, protagonists of change in the social economy: resources and talents that, if not valorised, risk being lost, thus compromising the potential development of the Sector.

The survey is aimed at young people born between 1981 and 2012 who have gained active experience in the Third Sector and stems from the desire to listen to the opinion of Millennials and Generation Z, in their roles as protagonists of social impact.

Participants will be able to contribute to the survey for 45 days from 28 February until 13 April 2023. The results of the research will be compiled in a report, published and presented between next June and July.

The main objective of this research is to shed light on the opportunities and problems of the Third Sector faced by the new generations of Italian non-profit organisations, in order to identify possible future scenarios and new ways forward.

In fact, the non-profit sector is growing rapidly in terms of both the number of organisations and the number of people working in it, making it a colossal ’employer’ that produces EUR 80 billion a year, equal to about 5% of Italy’s GDP.

The emergence of new degree courses, together with the growing demand for specialised workers, are contributing to the development of services and opportunities of great social benefit to our country.

The new generations are increasingly attracted to the non-profit sphere and are among the first to contribute their technical skills: they are qualified, vertical and attentive to the role of technology and digital to support their activities.

The survey is promoted by Italia non profit and The Good Social, with the support of Fondazione Piemonte Innova within the project I3S – Digital innovation for the third sector and Fundraiser for passion.

Supporters of the research are One Day Group, Officine Buone Cause, ImpactSkills and FutureVox.

Find out more: PARTICIPATE IN THE SURVEY!

ICT companies and the third sector meet the University of Turin

The ICT Cluster’s Research Meetings are an opportunity to get to know the world of research more closely and to start collaborating with its member organisations.

In this special edition of the Research Meeting, the University of Turin will present ICT companies and third sector organisations and enterprises with research activities, specialisations and infrastructures to lay the foundations for future collaborations, particularly related to the topic of social impact technologies.

Bilateral meetings open to all participants will be held on the following days.

An event open to all ICT companies and third sector organisations/businesses.

Read more and register

The event is organised by the Torino Wireless Foundation, as part of the ICT Cluster’s INTERACT service, in collaboration with the University of Turin and in synergy with the I3S project, led by the Torino Wireless Foundation, in collaboration with the representative bodies (Confcooperative Piemonte Nord, LegaCoop and Vol.TO) with the contribution of the Torino Chamber of Commerce, and is part of the Tech4Good programme of the Torino Social Impact Strategic Plan.

The partnership between the two Italian companies will help to monitor, evaluate and prevent the effects of extreme weather events and natural disasters through Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions that can be deployed on existing Edge devices in minutes.

Eurotech, a trusted and leading enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT) in mission-critical applications, and WaterView, a company specialized in computer vision and AI for meteorology, hydrology, and environmental modeling, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a strategic partnership to enable real-time weather condition monitoring applications.

Eurotech’s hardware and software enable a simple and fast deployment of WaterView’s AI at the Edge. The integrated solution transforms existing surveillance cameras into remotely managed intelligent sensors without the need to change the existing infrastructure, to detect early signs of the increasingly recurring extreme weather events and quantify natural disasters.

“We are thrilled to partner up with a company like WaterView, with a strong vision towards a more sustainable future enabled by AI technologies: a perfect match with our DNA of enabling Edge AI in mission-critical applications” stated Paul Chawla, Eurotech CEO. “We are excited to share our international footprint and customer reach, our long-term know-how and premium technology to scale up this solution to a wide range of use cases, with a common go-to-market and a ‘one stop’ integrated solution for our customers”.

“Eurotech provides a unique combination of certified hardware and software that enable us to cut down system integration efforts, time-to-market and costs of deployment of our AI on the Edge” commented Paola Allamano, WaterView CEO. “Their integrated solution is open, guarantees a simple and safe connectivity to any Cloud with a vendor-agnostic approach and allows secure remote management and configuration of our Edge AI software”.

Both companies have a solid track record in offering their solutions to customers managing large infrastructures, like road and railway networks, electricity transmission grids and mobile communication towers. From NextGenerationEU to the US Infrastructure Deal, the post-pandemic economy will be driven by unprecedented investments in infrastructure renovation, digital transformation and green transition, with an underlying focus on climate change resilience.

By joining their forces, Eurotech and WaterView are already demonstrating the potential of cameras as sentinels for the environment, to monitor weather and its effects. The first joint pilot projects are ongoing and opportunities have been identified in the markets of: smart infrastructures by leveraging cameras on highways and railways – on average 1 device every 3 to 5 km, over 100 thousand estimated cameras on Europe and USA; onboard trains and truck fleets, where cameras are already installed for other applications; and on tower sites – over 426 thousand telco towers in Europe and over 1 million including USA. Accidents can be avoided by analyzing the level of rain and snow on roads and rail tracks, flood damages can be safely evaluated by measuring the water level at a distance and wildfires can be prevented by detecting smoke at early stages.

Business Networking & B2B

The loosening of the restrictions imposed by the lockdown is gradually restarting the fruition of artistic heritage, after a year of dramatic contraction. However, the pandemic crisis has contributed to spreading great interest in the opportunities offered by digital technology. There are, in fact, numerous cases of experimentation and adoption of technological solutions, with the intention of supporting the revolution taking place in the methods of use and creation of cultural content, as in the case of museums and live shows.

How can technological development be used to serve cultural heritage and art?

What solutions have already emerged in the crisis?

How can the change underway be made structural?

The Torino Wireless Foundation is organizing a meeting with the companies belonging to the ICT Innovation Pole of the Piedmont Region, to present available solutions and consolidated skills able to support museums, show business operators and in general the cultural realities in this delicate phase of transition to digital.

REGISTER NOW

The Corporate Meeting is

LIVE EVENT remotely connected on ZOOM platform, in which the companies belonging to the ICT Cluster present their solutions with quick 5-minute speeches on the model of speed pitching.

B2B MEETINGS organized in the days following the meeting, which take place in remote connection. Each participant in the live event can request personalized appointments to each speaker.

AGENDA

15:00 – Login time – Participants access on ZOOM

15:05 – Welcome greetings

Laura Morgagni, Torino Wireless Foundation
Matteo Negrin, Piemonte dal Vivo Foundation

15:15 – How to make the change structural? The opportunities of digital

Speakers:

• Sara Abram, La Venaria Reale Cultural Heritage Conservation and Restoration Center Foundation
• Massimiliano Atelli, Visconti Sforza Castle Foundation of Novara
• Domenico De Gaetano, National Cinema Museum
• Mariella Mengozzi, National Automobile Museum of Turin “Avv. Giovanni Agnelli”.

15:40 – SPEED PITCHING

The companies belonging to the ICT Cluster present innovative solutions in 5 minutes.

Plunge – immersive digital experience
Flavio Trione, 3×1010

Plunge allows you to create a virtual world equipped with various touchpoints that are totally customizable (widgets, videos, images, texts, external links, etc.) that can be easily updated and nationalized through a content management system. The areas of application are many, from the world of events to digital art (NFT), from museums to distance learning and more…

Changing realities: new ways of fruition between real and virtual
Davide Pantile, ETT (SCAI)

The tools developed by ETT for the virtual visit (VR, Virtual Tours) of museums and attractions received a strong boost during the emergency period of the pandemic. Now that they represent an important asset for the promotion and enhancement of heritage, as a vehicle to attract visitors who have had a preview of what they will find.

A new model of gamification for culture: ICX – Interactive Culture Experience
Pietro Tosco, Heritage

Gamification represents a new frontier of digital communication. The speech will address the issue through the presentation of Interactive Culture Experience, a platform developed by Heritage for user-oriented gamification of cultural content.

AI and Iot Solutions for Cultural Heritage Digital Twins
Ilario gerlero, Concept Reply

The “digital twins”, enabled by real-time monitoring of environmental parameters and predictive modeling software, facilitate an integrated management strategy and the choice of optimal preventive actions for artistic heritage and historical-cultural sites. Reply’s multidisciplinary team applies this methodology in the case of the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, subject to a delicate balance between conservation and enhancement for the building and its furnishings and visitor access.

Qroom immersive holographic service desk
Ivano Canteri, Quintetto

The world’s first immersive holographic service desk, enabling real-time remote presence for businesses and services while maintaining the near-physical presence of human interaction and assistance. A patent that integrates AI for multimodal interaction interfaces and services, eliminating the need for expensive local offices and travel.

Archem: Augmented Reality for Cultural Heritage in Southern Etruria
Serena Ambrosini, Consoft Sistemi

The project focuses on the experience of fruition from the point of view of the visitor for a model that helps the realities and places of exhibition to improve their proposal, with the consequence of becoming more and more “smart museum”. It intends to intervene on the cultural heritage of Southern Etruria thanks to the support of the Municipalities of Civitavecchia, Tolfa and Unindustria: and in particular to enhance the lesser known heritage, i.e. outside the flows towards the two sites of Cerveteri and Tarquinia with the aim of presenting it and making it accessible to the community through KET (enhancement, fruition and management) and connecting it to the tourist flows of the major sites.

Artificial intelligence in the museum context
Andrea Basso, Synesthesia Innovation

In recent years Synesthesia has extended its area of activity to technological innovation: in this talk we will present the recent projects of Synesthesia Innovation in the field of artificial intelligence applications in the context of culture and in particular in the Piedmontese museum context.

Wikimuseo – a wiki approach to transform museum visitors into contributors
Alessandro Montanari, LiberActa

WikiMuseo is a prototype developed to implement an experimental program started with the national museum system on the occasion of the recent Arthatlon held in the early months of this year and aimed at making the national cultural heritage more usable and transforming visitors into active participants and contributors through a wiki approach and gamification of the visiting experience.

WimTV for art, culture and entertainment
Riccardo Chiariglione, Cedeo

WimTV is the tool with which museums, cultural institutions such as theaters, clubs and organizations on the territory, organizers of events (concerts, shows, demonstrations) can effectively promote and publicize their audiovisual content. Single videos, live broadcasts, palimpsests, with the possibility to rebroadcast them on social networks, TV platforms, digital terrestrial and satellite.

Wireless monitoring for the protection of artistic and archaeological heritage
Andrea Piede, Capetti Elettronica

The wireless technology used in the monitoring of microclimatic conditions in museums and in the control of the lesions of the archaeological and architectural heritage in order to ensure the protection and preservation of the small artefact but also of the great infrastructure.

17:00 – Conclusions and closure

YOUR B2B APPOINTMENTS

Each participant can request personalized appointments
to each speaker. The meetings will be scheduled in the following days and will take place remotely.

How to participate

The invitation is free and open to all interested companies, members or not.

REGISTER NOW

On Friday 23 April, representatives from the world of social work worked with ICT companies and Torino Wireless to find new ideas to generate more effective processes and better services.

The first meeting, organised by the Torino Wireless Foundation, was attended by five ETS – Agridea, Arcobaleno, Il Margine, P.G. Frassati, San Donato – and five ICT companies – iMpronta, Infotech System, Koinè Sistemi, myDonor Società Benefit, Tc-Web. The dialogue was facilitated thanks to the guidance of an innovation manager from Confcooperative Piemonte Nord.

The aim of the collaborative design was first of all to understand how to make the best use of data to enable ETS to create efficiencies in internal processes, as well as to better understand what opportunities there are to create new services and enable decision-making on the basis of more accessible and understandable information.

The working methodology set up by the Links Foundation included the use of innovative tools, such as Mural, the design thinking platform, which allowed the team to use visual thinking to organise, share and develop new ideas, despite the people involved working remotely. Interactive notice boards and murals made up of images, writing and post-it notes were created on the virtual whiteboard, which provided many ideas for design solutions not yet available on the market.

The next event will be on Friday 30 April on the theme “The user at the centre: user-driven innovation”.

What is I3S – Innovation for the Third Sector?

The world of volunteering and social entrepreneurship is among the most affected by the Coronavirus crisis. The pandemic has brought to light the need and opportunity to invest in transforming the way in which most services are provided: what role can technology play?

Torino Wireless, together with TSI and the Chamber of Commerce of Turin, in the framework of the Tech4Good activities of the Torino Social Impact strategic plan, involved in the I3S Project – Digital Innovation for the Third Sector the representative bodies (Confcooperative, Lega COOP, VOL.TO) and 16 bodies of the third sector, including social cooperatives, networks and voluntary associations, to identify innovation needs and work together with ICT companies, first of all those of the Digital4Social Chain of the ICT Innovation Pole, to design and test new digital solutions.

The final objective of the I3S project is to create a programme to accelerate the digital and technological transformation of the third sector, with the strong involvement of its protagonists and specifically tailored to their specific needs, replicable and scalable to extend the initiative to more and more realities.

For further information: I3S Project.

“Emerging technologies for sustainable development” is the first research report realized in the Social Tech Lab program, a project by Nesta Italia, supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, in the context of Torino Social Impact. Thanks to the precious collaboration of six different research partners, in the report the most used emerging technologies are analyzed and, through the analysis of some international case studies, their potential of social impact is highlighted.

Associazione Italiana Sviluppo Marketing (AISM), in collaboration with Nesta Italia, organizes three online webinars to deepen together with the authors of the research the potential of emerging technologies to accelerate a path of sustainable development.

Appointment on April 8, 21 and 28 at 17:00 on Zoom.

The webinars will also be broadcast on the Facebook channel of the Italian Association of Marketing Development at this link https://www.facebook.com/AssociazioneItalianaMarketing

To encourage the strengthening of the ecosystem and the collective dimension, a path has been started to enable the involvement and the protagonism of the partners.

On November 25, 2020, during the Assembly of Torino Social Impact, it was started four working groups: Innovation Mapping, Impact Finance, Tech4Good, Internationalization. The aim of these groups is to give space to the emerging planning in these areas, to integrate and update the masterplan of Torino Social Impact and to define planning.

What is the definition of Tech4Good for the Turin ecosystem? How the actors of the ecosystem innovate their projects and their organization through the use of technology as an enabler for social impact? These were the starting question for a working group coordinated by Nesta Italia, Torino Wireless and 2i3t.

15 subjects have shared project proposals and reflections on tech4good definition. The goal is to map the tech4good project active or designed in Turin.

The work of the group is proceeding with a common definition, the analysis of the possible synergies between the projects of the different organisations. Next meetings scheduled in March and April.

Emerging Technologies for Sustainable Development

The first Research Report of the Social Tech Lab analyzes the main and most widespread Emerging Technologies, considering the potential of social impact in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, presenting the history, evolution and use cases of emerging technologies. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific technology, contributed to the research: Impactscool, Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italian Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines (I-RIM), Isinnova, Uqido, Italian Association for Marketing Development (AISM).

Objectives and structure of the research

The objective of this report is to provide accessible and quality information on the main emerging technologies of relevance in 2021: Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, Internet of things and 5G, Virtual and Augmented Reality, Blockchain.

In doing so, emphasis was placed on the role that emerging technologies can play for the common good:

• describing their positive potential for social and environmental impact and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); and
• outlining guidelines to mitigate their risks and avoid unintended negative consequences.

How to download the Report

Simply go to the Social Tech Lab website, at this link.

Thanks to I3S – Digital Innovation for the Third Sector project, 16 social enterprises and voluntary associations, together with their representative bodies, will work with the Torino Wireless Foundation to develop a digital and technological innovation path to reinterpret their offer and create new processes and services.

The pandemic has revealed the need and the opportunity to invest in the transformation of the delivery of most services: what role can technology play?

Torino Wireless has taken up this challenge and, supported by the Turin Chamber of commerce as part of the Torino Social Impact strategic plan, has involved in the I3S Project the representative bodies on the territory (Confcooperative, Lega COOP, VOL.TO) and, through them, 16 third sector entities, including social cooperatives, networks and voluntary associations, who will work side by side and together with a group of ICT companies to design and test digital transformation projects.

For further info, please visit the project page.

How can we use technology to benefit our lives, our planet and our society? To understand what “tech for good” is and how it works, let’s hear from its protagonists. Starting from January 2021, every second and fourth Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. (CET) join Nesta Italia live on Facebook and Youtube to discover projects, initiatives and use cases of technologies applied to benefit the people and the planet, considering both positive and critical aspects.

Giacomo Mariotti (Tech for Good Lead, Nesta Italia) together with professionals from the international scene will explore latest trends and possible future developments, to enhance confrontation and unexpected collaborations between innovators from different fields

The interviews will be in English, after the live the videos will be available on our Youtube Channel with Italian subtitles available.

Agenda (in progress)

12th January 2021 | Massimiliano Costa, Head of Share The Meal Initiative

26th January 2021 | Toby Mather, Founder & CEO Lingumi

9th February 2021 | Dhruv Ghulati, Founder Factmata

23rd February 2021 | Sonja-Maria Ignatius, Founder & CEO Kausal

9th March 2021 | Miriam Redi, Senior Research Scientist, Wikimedia Foundation

23rd March 2021 | Alessandro Piscopo, Senior Data Scientist, BBC

To stay updated on the events, sign up on Eventbrite.

A program by Nesta Italia, realized with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo in the context of Torino Social Impact.

The Social Tech Lab is a three-year program developed to promote the knowledge, the development and the application of social impact technological solutions by the entities of the territorial system, the local populations, the investors and the enterprises, in order to accelerate the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Marco Zappalorto (CEO, Nesta Italia) and Daniela Gregnanin (Head of Mission Accelerate Innovation, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo) present the Social Tech Lab in this article on the Nesta Italia blog, in which they illustrate how the program was born, what needs it intends to respond to and the methodology that will be applied in the implementation of research and planning activities.

To stay updated on the developments of the Social Tech Lab you can visit the official website.

In a phase of global uncertainty, Torino Social Impact is the transversal alliance of 100 subjects of the territory united in a new model of inclusive development for the city, in the framework of the European debate for recovery from the crisis, in which the social economy will play a key role on a par with more traditional industrial and economic ecosystems. These are 35 entities of the third sector and culture, 22 private profit and nonprofit sector entities, 6 incubators and accelerators, 6 research, innovation and technology transfer entities, 14 dedicated to skills and spaces for innovation, 14 to finance and philanthropy, 3 public entities.

The assembly, reserved for partners, opened with introductory greetings and future prospects by Guido Bolatto, Secretary General of the Chamber of commerce of Turin, Paolo Mulassano, Planet Objective Manager of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, Marco Pironti, City of Turin Councillor.
Following the report on future activities and scenarios by Mario Calderini, Spokesperson of Torino Social Impact.

After a moment of debate, 4 separate working groups were launched at the same time.
The participants, according to their choices, started a collection of ideas on: 1. Innovation mapping 2. Impact finance 3. Tech4good 4. Internationalization.
The objective is to bring out concrete proposals on the 4 strands that, in addition to being at the center of IST’s mission, could be central in the city’s policies in the coming years. For this reason, the groups have started today a work that will continue in the coming months.

Group 1. has laid the foundations for a mapping that serves not only to represent, but above all to attract resources and innovative projects. The objective is also to fill the gaps, enhancing the most hidden but high potential territorial realities, identifying indicators for these evaluations.
Group 2. will focus on matching supply and demand for impact finance, on the theme of setting up dedicated funds and on urban regeneration as the main theme of the interventions to be stimulated.
Group 3. aims to initiate work on understanding and decoding the Tech4good strand as a lever for sustainable change that uses technology to benefit people and the environment.
Group 4. proposes itself, through TSI, as a place to put the common heritage of international relations as a resource at the disposal of the territory to obtain credibility and listening at an European level.

Remaining on the potential of TSI as a bridge to Europe, during the Assembly was also launched the 2021 Torino Impact City initiative: 3 international events are already on the agenda in Turin: GSG – Ashoka – IRIS Network and TSI will continue to be a protagonist in Road To Mannheim, the policy-shaping process towards the European Action Plan for the Social Economy that will be approved in the second half of 2021.

In the second half of 2021 will be approved a European Action Plan for the Social Economy, a key document of a new vision of the economic system, a key tool to systematically integrate the social economy in the different socio-economic policies of the European Union, as well as in its actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A plan in which third sector and social impact can play a transformative role and strengthen the capacity to react to crises. The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the strong contribution of the social economy to the well-being of the population, proving to be a fundamental part of the European Protection Network and therefore a pillar of the socio-economic landscape of Europe. At the same time, however, the negative economic impact on businesses and social organizations has been strong and concrete actions are therefore necessary to safeguard this crucial part of the European entrepreneurial fabric, which must be considered a pillar of a new economy that brings social and environmental value.

In the path of accreditation at the EU that TSI is strongly pursuing in recent months, there is also the speech of Mario Calderini, IST spokesman, as keynote speaker at the seminar organized on November 26 by the European Commission, “Envisioning the future of social economy as a catalyst for transformational change in industry and society”. The event is part of the conference Recovery Strategy for Europe, the third stage of the Road to Mannheim program towards the construction of the EU Social Economy Action Plan. The participation of IST spokesperson Mario Calderini confirms IST as a model of territorial partnership for the strengthening of ecosystems with social impact, which was already presented in September at the first Road to Mannheim event “New challenges, new innovations, new solidarity – Social economy in the fight against COVID” and was also selected by the European Commission as the organizer of one of the panels of the last Road to Mannheim conference, scheduled for April 29th on “Partnerships for maximizing social impact”.